Gear



G. A. DALTON ET AL 9W 2 9 il. .1,

GEAR

1927 2 Sheets-Sheet Filed March 25,

Jamo E G. A. DALTON ET AL GEAR Filed March 25, 1927 y 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Jan. l, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE A. DALTON AND JOHN R. IDUNHAM, OF HIGHLAND PARK, NEW JERSEY, SIGNORS T0 FLEXIBLE ENGINEERING CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A COB- IPORATION OF NEW YORK."

Application illed March 25, 1927. 'Serial No. 178,264.

This invention relates to improvements. in ears, and one of the objects of the invention 1s to rovide a gear the novel constructwn of whic affords silence in operati-on.

To this end, the invention contemplates the provision of a laminated gear body, and another object of the invention 1s to provide a novel laminated formation effectively eliminating from the gear certain inherent defects of this type of construction.

Another object of the invention is to provide a gear which will be self-lubricating.

- These and other objects more fully described hereinafter we obtain by means of a `construction illustrated inthe attached drawings, in which;

Fig. 1 is a face view of a gear blank made in accordance with our Iinvention in which several of the teeth have been cut;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2.-2, Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a side view similar to that of Fig. l of a modiiied form of gear' v i Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4 4, Fign;

Fig. 5 is a view in perspective of a pecuhar form of disk which may constitute one of the laminations of the gear;

Fig. 6 is a section similar to the sections of Figs. 2 and 4 and illustrating a further modiication of the invention;

Figs. 7 and 8 are respectively side and end views of elements used in a modified form of our'device, and f Fig. 9 is a view illustrating the modification referred to in Figs. 7 and 8.

The noisiness of the usual type of metal gear is a serious objection to their use in certainclasses of mechanism. Metal gears, howyover, particularly gears of steel, are desirable for their other characteristics of strength and durability. Welhave discovered that when, instead of forming the gear of a solid piece of metal, the gear is built up of alarge number of relativelythin plates laid face-toface .to give a true laminated body, and while still employing the. same materials of which the aforesaid solid metal gears have been made, the objectionable operating noises are largely or entirely eliminated. The laminated gear is effective to reduce or eliminate noises even when used in conjunction with the ordinary type of solid metal gear, but the characteristic is particularly noticeable when the co-actmg gears are both or all of the laminated type.

GEAR.

By this invent-ion, therefore, we are able to provide a gear whichl while having all of the desirable characteristics of solid metal, say for examplesteel or iron, is at the same time comparatively noiseless in operation regardless of the type of gear with which it may be employed.

A gear of this type we have illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 of the attached drawings, the gear in a preferred form comprising apair of lrelatively heavy side or facingvplates 1 between which are held face-to-face a suflicient number of thin disks 2 to give a gear of the required width. In the present instance, the laminated body is held together by means of rivets 3 passed through the end plates .and the disks 2 and riveted in the said end plates, as clearly illustrated.

Insome instances, and particularly where relatively soft metals are employed in the gears with which the aforedescribe-d laminated gear meshes, the laminated' formation is disadvantageous by reason of a tendency of the individual disks to cut or wear grooves in the faces of the opposing gear teeth. This we have entirely eliminated, by the construction shown in Fig. 4. In this instance, the general construction is the Same as that shown in Fig. 1, the gear comprising facing plates 1 and 1b and a plurality of thin disks 2B. secured between the facing plates by means of rivets 3?. In this instance, the inner faces' of the plates 1a and 1b are beveled at the perlphery, the depth of the bevel, radially, corresponding with the hei ht of the tooth in the finished gear. The vels in the plates 1El and l" are complementary, as clearly illustrated, so that when these plates are drawn tight u on the disks 2a, the peripheral por-- tions o the disk are bent out of their normal plane, as illust-rated in Fig. 4. When under these circumstances the teeth are cut in the gear blank, the dividing lines between the disks 2a', instead of being throughout perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the gear, are, at least in the toothed portion, inclined thereto as shown at 4 in Fig. 4. The relative movement of the meshing gear teeth therefore is in planes intersectin the dividing lines between the disks 2a, an the aforesaid grooving tendency ris avoided.

This gear lends itself particularly well to self-lubrication. In Figs. 5 and 6, we have asl " 6 tive lubrication at the surfaces of the'teeth.

The lubricant maybe of any sort butin a preferred form it consists of solid self-sus-` taining gra hiticdisks whichmay be inserted and eld between the disks 2P. In

l0 some instances, it is desirable to score or corrugate the side faces of the disks 2" in order to retain the lubricant, as shown in Fig.' 5. Whensuch scorings or corru tions are employed, the lubricant may of'a plastic i v1l nature, only suicient being placed between 'the disks as can be held inthe grooves i11-A the contacting faces, v

We have further discovered that the noiseless characteristics of the gear'may be acn centuated by or plating the individual disks with a metallic coating such as tin. I

This tin coating further reduces the tendency of the gear to ringor sound under blows or sharp contacts.

Instead of formin the'laminated struc- 25 ture -by means of dis s, as described above we may em loy a continuous flat strip of v metal roll or otherwise -made into spiral form, as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. By cony iinin this spiral form 6 between suitable 80 'fend anges or lates 7 as shown in'Fig. 9,

a structure is o tained which in all essential respects is the same as the laminated structure previously described and which for the purposes ofthe resent application may be 35 considered a tru yvlaminated structure.

We claim: A laminated gear in which the faces of the individual lamin are scored for. reception o f a lubricant, said scorings extending 40 'to the tooth surfaces of the gear.

GEORGE A. muros. JOHN n. DUNHAM. 1 

